Dougco Board Proposes Teacher Raises, Performance Pay, & Ending Union Privileges

by Eddie | 1:23 pm, April 10, 2012

I write a lot about Douglas County here, and with good reason. The school board there has charted a bold course. Hey, it wasn’t much more than a year ago that they voted to establish the first locally-created private school choice program in the nation. More recently, they demonstrated their commitment to transparency by voting [...]

Harrison’s Reform Champion Mike Miles to Move On to Bigger Dallas Stage

by Eddie | 4:03 pm, April 3, 2012

I’m a little down in the dumps today, and the cool, gloomy weather only has a little bit to do with. Ed News Colorado has reported that bold Harrison reform superintendent Mike Miles is all but officially moving on to be chief of the Dallas Independent School District, the 14th largest in the nation. Apparently, [...]

Center for Ed Reform Gives Colo. Charter School Law Another B: We Can Do Better

by Eddie | 4:00 pm, April 2, 2012

The Center for Education Reform (CER) today released its annual analysis of the state’s charter school laws, giving the nation a mediocre 2.1 Grade Point Average. CER’s gold standard measure looks at the practical effects of statutes and policies that govern the creation of high-quality, autonomous and accountable public charter schools to meet the demands [...]

Harrison Teacher Performance Pay: Fordham’s Guide to Serious Reform

by Eddie | 1:18 pm, March 23, 2012

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about the performance pay plan in Colorado Springs’ Harrison School District, so you may not be up to speed on this cutting-edge innovation. At that time, six months ago, Harrison superintendent Mike Miles was sharing the district’s story around Ohio.
From those events has come at last an excellent Fordham [...]

Independence Institute Shares Colorado’s Own Digital Learning Roadmap

by Eddie | 12:49 pm, March 21, 2012

Do you ever get lost, driving around a big city and missing your destination? Maybe you pass the same landmark two, three, or even four times, getting more frustrated along the way. Maybe your GPS is malfunctioning, or maybe you just wish you had a GPS! For me, the feeling comes as I search for [...]

Dougco School Board Approves Choice Program: Looking Back One Year Later

by Eddie | 11:55 am, March 15, 2012

Can you believe it was one year ago today that the Douglas County Board of Education voted to adopt the groundbreaking Pilot Choice Scholarship Program? (Can you also believe that I was 5 years old then and am still 5 years old now? I need to talk to my Education Policy Center friends about this.) [...]

Let’s Look at the Other Important Part of Colorado’s Early Literacy Problem, Too

by Eddie | 1:40 pm, March 13, 2012

If I weren’t so little, I might have stayed up to hear the first result for Colorado’s most talked about education bill of the session. But it went past my bedtime before the House Education Committee agreed to adopt HB 1238, as Ed News Colorado reported:

The House Education Committee Monday gave a full hearing – [...]

School Reform News Bulletin: Can Bold Iowa Reform Plans Get Unstuck?

by Eddie | 12:19 pm, March 5, 2012

Hard to believe it was five months ago I asked the question: Is major education reform about ready to give Iowa a try? At the heart of the story is a local connection. Jason Glass, appointed the state’s education chief a little more than a year ago by incoming Governor Terry Branstad, has some notable [...]

Taking a Few Leaps to Promote Excellent School Leadership in Colorado

by Eddie | 12:09 pm, February 29, 2012

Since today is February 29, I’ll take a timely leap from some of my usual fare to point you to two new podcasts produced by my Education Policy Center friends. In the first, Gina Schlieman explains how school-level autonomy has empowered some positive changes in Britain. In the second, foundation president Tom Kaesemeyer highlighted a [...]

“Education Justice League” Sums Up Research, Points to School Choice Future

by Eddie | 3:52 pm, February 22, 2012

Once in awhile an article comes along that makes you stand up and cheer. For me, the latest is a new Education Week column signed by “nine scholars and analysts” that lays out clearly what the research says about school choice. I was tempted to re-post the whole thing, but the big people in my [...]

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